I’ve made a very worth it purchase recently. Both editions of Halo Wars 2 was on sale (50% off). Halo Wars 2 Standard was $30.00 + tax and Halo Wars 2 Ultimate Edition was $40.00 due to the price cut. I spent the 10 extra dollars and got the Ultimate Edition.
Comparison:
Halo Wars 2 Standard Edition ($60 USD) only includes Halo Wars 2.
- 12 campaign missions
- 6 leaders
- Captain Cutter, Isabel, Anders, Decimus, Atriox, and Shipmaster
- Traditional gamemodes (for example, deathmatch)
- Blitz Mode
- Blitz Firefight Mode
Halo Wars 2 Ultimate Edition ($80 USD) includes a bunch of things:
- The Ultimate Edition contains the Halo Wars 2 Standard Edition
- 4 Days Early Access to Halo Wars 2 (which doesn’t matter since it was released a long time ago)
- Halo Wars 2 Season Pass, which includes nearly all of the DLC (new units and leaders, new campaign maps, new blitz cards, etc. For example, one of the new leaders you can get are Jerome-092 and Arbiter)
- The Season Pass includes 6 leaders that cost $5.99 each (Jerome, Arbiter, Sergeant Johnson, Colony, Serina, and Kinsano)
- The Season Pass also includes Operation: Spearbreaker, which is a mini-campaign with two missions. It costs $5.99 by itself.
- It does NOT include the Awakening the Nightmare expansion. Everyone is mad about this, but that is $20 more dollars and includes some new leaders (Voridus and his Brute Grenadiers, Infused Engineer, and Volatile Scarab; Pavium and his Mega Turret and Wraith Invader) and the Awakening the Nightmare campaign (6 maps) along with the terminus firefight mode, and new maps.
- The Ultimate Edition also includes Halo Wars 1 Definitive Edition
- Basically a remastered Halo Wars (faster framerate, better graphics and also runs on Windows 10)
- Includes all the DLC (gamemodes and maps), in case you never bought the DLC for the original Halo Wars.
- **NOTE: The Leader Captain Forge is not included in this package, but it should be free for everyone. Go to the Xbox Marketplace and download the Forge Leader Pack.
I would say that for those 10 (or 20 if it’s not on sale) extra dollars, Halo Wars 2 Ultimate Edition is definitely worth it.
After playing Halo Wars 2 for a few days, I enjoyed it. Blitz mode is fun and the new card system is very interesting. My only complaint is that selecting different unit types (RT) is a little bit slow. Furthermore, I finally got to play the Halo Wars 1 DLC and got to try out reinforcement mode and tug of war mode, which were both very fun. The story of Halo Wars 2 contains the same characters as Halo Wars 1, but instead of the main enemy being the flood and the forerunners, it’s now the covenant.
If you don’t get the Ultimiate Edition, you’re missing out on so many new leaders, which add a ton of new content into the game. Additionally, the Halo Wars 2 campaign is much more difficult than the Halo Wars 1 campaign. The multiplayer is expanded with many new units such as the Sniper for the UNSC, and the Reaver for the Banished. The Ultimate Edition is not needed to enjoy the game, however. The game is great even without the Ultimate Edition. However, note that the Ultimate Edition does not include the very newest campaign, and neither does it include the two newest leaders Voridus and Pavium.